After a few forays straying from tradional country (the bluesy Alison Krause “Red On a Rose” and the sucessful “Precisous Memories” collection of Hymmns) The new CD hits stores Tuesday and is produced by longtime collaborator Keith Stegal and is pure Alan.

So what’s unique about this album. First off, it’s the first entire CD on which Alan has written every word. There are seventeen tracks. Pretty impressive.
Secondly, all the songs are new, unique, and sound like big Alan Jackson hit songs. It’s real deal country music.

I’ve never been a core Jackson fan. I’ve always simply just liked his ditties like “Little Bitty” and even duds like the more recent “Talking’ Repair Song Blues.”
But tracking through “Good Time” on a long drive yesterday I found myself singing along to almost every single song on the disk. These are songs I’ve never heard before. Alan’s writing some powerful hooks.

The vocoder craze continues in the lead track with the sing along “G with an O an O with a D a T with an I an M with an E that spells good time.” It’s a fin way to start and a likely radio hit if released.

Alan blazes through “Small Town Southern Man” – already a big hit on radio. Slows it down for the clever and well written “I Wish I Could Back Up.”

After that expect solid drinkin’ songs (“If You Want To Make Me Happy”); island songs (the solid “Laid Back in Low Key – Cay); and even his true country version of Nineteen Something (“1976″).

Another highlight is the somber “You’ve Got Me Right Where I Want You” I can’t believe that lyric has not been written before.

This is a great way to fight single song downloads. Just make every track on the CD a keeper. No filler here just pure country that guarantees Jackson’s prominence on country radio for another two years. Listening beginning to end lives up to the album’s name.

Alan Jackson has sold more than 49 million albums, has penned 21 of his 31 #1 records, and is the most nominated artist in CMA history. The three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year topped the album charts not once, but twice, in 2006, with the success of Precious Memories and Like Red on a Rose. GOOD TIME is his first album of all country material since 2004’s WHAT I DO.

My Grade: Solid A
Don’t Skip: “I Still Like Bologna” – Better than a cliché “WWW Dot Memory” the song takes a real country look at tech and appreciation for life’s simpler pleasures.
Fast Forward: Past “Country Boy” – a slightly forced and cartoonish Jackson song.